Let us start by saying our house was once grand. She had everything one would expect of a Queen Anne: multiple stained and beveled glass windows, three ornate fireplaces, dark wood trim everywhere, beautiful exterior architecture, a large front and wrap around back porch, a butler's pantry, and two staircases...the front staircase for the family and the back for the servants.

To make a long story short, she was neglected and in desperate need of help. I called and scheduled a walk through with the owner. I felt my equilibrium go off when we walked in but was too interested in the house to pay much attention.

We scheduled another walk through a couple weeks later and sat down with the owner to talk about whether he was willing to negotiate the price. In a month and a half, we were handed the keys to our future pride and joy.

During that month and a half wait, I had a dream of a woman walking up the servant's stairs. She had her hair pulled into a bun at the base of her neck and was wearing a long white dress with a wide black ribbon around her waist. I mentioned it to Larry and he said he hadn't felt anything when we were there. So I put it out of my mind until the night we got the keys. We brought the kids through the house (which was still filled with junk from previous owners). They admitted it needed work but otherwise loved the house and chose their bedrooms. After dropping them off at the house we were renting, Larry and I drove back. He went upstairs and called my name. He was looking down the servant's staircase where he had found 3 interesting old headboards. As I reached the back hall; I could feel the air thicken, my equilibrium went off, my chest started tightening, and my skin felt like it was vibrating. I wasn't afraid but I'd be lying if I didn't say it startled the heck out of me. Larry had walked down the short hall to the bathroom. I stood in the doorway, trying to sort out what I was feeling when I heard a woman's voice say "Hello?" It was really odd because although I clearly heard what she said, it sounded as though she was talking through a long pipe, kind of echoed and hollow. (I hope that makes sense.) I asked Larry if he heard it but he hadn't. Even though I knew exactly where it came from, the logical side of me thought maybe one of the neighbors saw us in the house and had stepped in to say hello. I walked downstairs and wasn't surprised to find it empty.

Unfortunately, I didn't. I have always been able to sense their presence but this was the first time I've "heard" along with the other senses.

Fortunately Larry has abilities I don't, he's been a tremendous help with my doubt in my abilities. After that experience, I realized the vibration was her reaching out and next time I will be more open to respond to her.

Perhaps you need to have a good investigation there, using EVP, camera's etc. Taking random shots of rooms sometimes produces remarkable results !

The feeling you got when you walked into that area is quite common, normally that feeling is associated with a change in the energy field where they have walked through you, or you are in their physical space. Id love to knw more about it ! Do you know the history of the house ?

Hi!
Great house!
Now...The two rooms at the top right side of the photo....those two have my full attention. Who is in those rooms? We there a lot of things left behind in the front upper right room??? Its kind of small, but seemed to be used for storage at times. It was like a small study and or sewing room. I see a woman there, she seems to be the oringinal owner. Perhaps her room for what she liked to do. Is there a little staircase nearby this room. Its a bit confusing inside at the moment.
The woman you dreamed, I believe is the same woman I am seeing. She really loved this home and was very typical of the time, very good natured and family orientated adn very proper type.
I get the name Madaline or Margret, its an Ma type name. She does have a bit of sorrow, she lost someone too soon, she was very alone when she passed is the feeling I keep getting.

I don't sense anyone else at this moment. If you could post some inside shots that would be very cool, perhaps I can go farther.
There is an odd feeling there, but not bad, its been a very sad house on and off over the years. It may be her who makes it sad, her seeing the house like this. It s a feeling of her being so proud of it when she lived there.

I'm going to start looking through the history tomorrow, at the library. I have an email sent to our local historical society to see what information they may have. I've also heard talk of a local historian living a few blocks from us, so that's another avenue.

We have children (7 between us) so valid EVPs and photographs are hard to obtain even when they are asleep (two snore and one talks in his sleep). We plan on doing an investigation but are waiting until the kids go to visit their Grandparents in June, that will give us a two week window to investigate. We're also working on the house and will be for a long time so if it's true activity levels are even higher during remodeling it will be interesting to see what we get.

Thanks to little turtle and Les for their accurate readings and everyone else for making us feel so welcome, this is a great forum! I told Les I’d post pictures of the inside in the near future. I didn't write them all, only the more interesting because we all know there are footsteps, noises, and small goings on in hauntings.

November 30th 2007: I already posted that one

December 10th 2007: Larry and I were cleaning out the servant’s stairs leading from the kitchen to the back hallway of the 2nd floor. I was aware of a low vibration as we were working but didn’t mention it to Larry. He stopped pulling out the trash from the stairway, turned and said “Shari, I think I just saw her!” He described a woman standing on the landing, looking up at us, with a smile on her face. I asked what she looked like and whether it was a nice smile or an I’m gonna get you if you don’t leave smile. He replied “A pleasant smile, like she was a kind person”. He wasn’t sure what color her dress was because she was grey tone and he could only see her from the waist up. *Note: We have been and still are removing trash, debris, and pieces they either took off the house or planned on installing but didn’t*

December 12th 2007: Larry and I were in bed, with the door open and the hall light on. I saw a shadow come across the door (as if walking from the back of the hall to the balcony or the tower room). I thought it was one of the kids and started to get up. Larry asked where I was going so I told him I thought someone was up. He said “You mean the shadow walking back and forth in the hall?” I agreed that was it. He said, “That’s been going on for the last 20 minutes, it’s not the kids”.

January 5th 2008: I think she’s fond of Larry. We were laying on the bed looking through a book, the kids were in their rooms. He felt a tapping on his leg and thought one of the kids came into the room but nobody was there. He turned back to the book and felt it again. He sat up and said “Someone keeps tapping my leg” as he looked over the edge of the bed. Nobody in the room and I was rather amused! He went downstairs to take a shower and came back up with his hair still wet and shaking. I asked what was wrong and he said “Someone pushed my hair out of my face while I was drying off” *Note: This is a six foot two inch, barrel-chested, Scottish highland descended, not really afraid of anything, type of a man. I have to admit after I asked him if he was okay, I laughed*

January 7th 2008: I woke last night and believe I heard a woman talking but I couldn‘t understand what she was saying. The voice got progressively softer, as though she was walking down the hallway towards the back hall. I laid in bed listening for a second then got up and walked down the hall but didn’t feel, hear, or see anything. The kids were all asleep.

January 26th 2008: Chase (our 11 yr. old) woke up this morning and asked if he could talk to me alone. He said he keeps seeing a blue light in their room at night. Maybe that explains why their light keeps blowing out. I asked if it was scaring him and he said it wasn’t. I told him it wasn’t anything to be afraid of and he quickly said he knew that, he just figured it was a ghost.

February 8th 2008: Larry arrived home from work (11:15 pm) came upstairs and asked “Were you just downstairs?” I told him I wasn’t. He asked if Hannah was. I told him she’d gone to bed early and asked why. He said he saw what he thought was me standing by the front door, looking out the sidelight window at him but when he got to the top step of the porch I was gone.

February 10th 2008: Larry was downstairs watching tv, I had gone to bed early. He saw me come down the stairs, walk through the foyer and stand there for a second. He asked if I was okay but I walked through the dining room without answering. He got up and followed only to see, in front of the fireplace, a woman in a long dress vanish.

February 17th 2008: I ran downstairs to switch laundry loads. Put the dryer contents into a basket and started to take the stuff out of the washer when that really strong feeling came over me again. I knew she was standing by the wall. I finished what I was doing, turned around and said “I know you‘re there, Miss, I can feel you. Do you need something?“ I didn’t hear a response, then proceeded up the stairs, basket in tow. She followed me up the stairs (I had the heebie jeebie feeling of someone behind you the whole way up) and into the bathroom. I stood there for a moment to see if I could hear anything, then yelled for Larry. By the time he walked in, the feeling was gone. I don‘t know if she walked through the other door of if I scared her when I suddenly yelled his name. *Note: Our basement is the same size as our 1st floor. It‘s big but doesn‘t have the creepy basement feel a lot of them have. Yes, Larry laughed at me this time because I didn‘t just yell his name once, I yelled it 3 times and I yelled it loudly*

March 6th 2008: I had an experience in our room. Larry was at work and the kids were outside playing. I was taking a few minute to read. I felt someone was watching me and turned my head to see a woman’s face for just a second before it was gone. It was as though she was kneeling down next to the bed, her face was level to mine.

March 24th 2008: Hannah (our 17 yr old) told me she felt someone grabbing her toes last night. At first she thought it was her cat but realized she was curled up behind her. She said she kept thinking of the game you play with babies…this little piggy…and said “Please stop, I’m tired, and that’s annoying” she said it happened once more and then stopped.

April 2nd 2008: Larry came home from work (12:00 am) and started up the stairs to our room. He was about three steps off the second landing when he looked down and saw her with her hand on the rail coming off the first landing. When he turned around to get a better look, she was gone.

April 11th 2008: I was on the 2nd floor and saw the cat trying to open Han’s closed bedroom door. I walked over, opened the door , and told her she was a beautiful girl as always. When I closed the door I felt a hand run up and down my arm and give me a pat. I didn’t see or sense anything but it was a loving touch. I said “Thank you” listened for a minute and walked back downstairs.

April 12th 2008: Hannah went into her room and started crying. When I asked her what was wrong she said “I don’t know, I just feel so sad” and started crying harder. I gave her a hug and told her I’d give her a while then come back. I knocked on her door about 15 mins later and she told me it was the weirdest thing. All of a sudden she felt so sad she couldn’t stop crying (completely out of character for her not to know what’s upsetting her) As she laid there, she felt someone rubbing her back. At first she thought it was me but realized the hand was cool and flipped over. Nobody there. She said “Thank you” .

April 18th 2008: Hannah and I were in the living room, the boys were asleep. We kept hearing noises upstairs in the hallway. I walked up twice but didn’t see anything. Han was on the computer and I was on the couch. Our dogs were laying in their beds asleep. She looked up and said “Mom, do you hear that? There’s someone in the kitchen.” Our kitchen has 5 doors: one leading upstairs (servant‘s stairs), one leading to the basement, one leading outside, one leading into the dining room, and one leading into the old butler’s pantry/now bathroom. I couldn’t remember if I had locked the outside door so I started through the dining room the dogs following. The door was locked and nobody was in the kitchen or basement. Walking back to the living room, I told her all was clear. We heard another bang in the hallway causing both the dogs to jumped up and look towards the stairs. We all heard someone walk down to the 2nd landing. I was sitting with a perfect view of the stairs but couldn’t see anyone. The dogs were still staring at the stairs and our westie started towards the doorway whining softly and looking back and forth from the stairs to me. He wasn’t aggressive, more anxious, and he wouldn’t go beyond the doorway. I started towards the stairs and saw the bottom ¼ of a long dress walking back upstairs. I ran up but she was gone.